


Round One

by west_haven



Category: The Last of Us
Genre: Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-08-22
Updated: 2014-08-22
Packaged: 2018-02-14 05:44:08
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,363
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/2180181
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/west_haven/pseuds/west_haven
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Ellie and Joel fight some infected and then tend to their wounds. Set after Tess, but before Bill.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Round One

Before she could blink, Joel's arm swung out in front of her while his other hand extended a finger silently to his lips. Ellie tried not to gasp; she now knew from experience that this meant danger was somewhere ahead of them.

He hid against an overturned table and she watched as he peeked around, trying to pinpoint some of the noises echoing around them. Instinctively, she ducked under his arm and he glanced at her with a quick, indescribable look on his face before resuming his watch.

After a moment, his eyes narrowed and he started to hoarsely whisper to her. "I think I hear 'em up ahead. I'm gonna see if I can't choke them out." Before she could sit up, he added, "stay put."

She scoffed and slid down the side of the table further. "Have fun without me then."

Joel acted like he didn't hear her as he slipped forward, crouched low with a shiv in one hand and his pistol in the other. Ellie swallowed as she saw him pass through a doorway into the darkness.

She pressed her back against the table again and flipped out her switchblade. The sound of it snapping open was so familiar to her now and it was a comforting weight in her hands. She attempted to focus on it instead of the chillingly quiet darkness around her.

It was difficult trying to act like she wasn't afraid, but she really was. Being out of her element like this, away from just simple, harmless jackasses at school, it was like an entirely different world. What made it worse was that every time she saw an infected, she had a brief flashback of being in the mall with Riley.

The image of her best friend holding up her shaking hand, blood dripping out of her fresh bite, was burned into her memory forever. Then she remembered that look in Tess' eyes as they ran away from her just a few hours earlier; she usually looked so strong and confident, but there, she only looked broken and lost.

Ellie violently shook her head and slipped the blade closed, only to nervously open it again. She hadn't heard anything out of the ordinary yet, so she supposed that Joel was okay. She _hoped_ he was okay.

Suddenly, she heard a gunshot echo through the building. Her head jolted up towards the noise, the sounds of a fight breaking out grew louder. Ellie took a deep breath and jumped up off the floor, running toward the noise.

The only things in the next room were a few dead infected on the ground, marking a trail towards a door on the far side. It was chilling, seeing the them sprawled on the dirty floor, their mouths covered in dried blood and their eyes open but unseeing. She quickly stepped around them and made her way to the next room.

The second room was where the action was happening and she hardly had a moment to breathe before an infected ran towards her. She backpedaled into the previous room and readied herself to strike. The infected woman stumbled after her and let out a shrill screech when she stabbed her knife into it's shoulder. Ellie quickly ripped it out and drove it back in, this time aiming for the throat. She pulled, tearing at the rotten flesh and gave the creature a fierce shove off her blade. That seemed to have done the trick as it only shuddered and jerked when it hit the floor.

Another gunshot rang out, prompting her to run back towards Joel. There were two infected around him and with one large swing, his pipe violently hit them both. He concentrated his attacks on one while the other slowly attempted to get back up off the floor. That was the one she quickly decided to take out for him.

She ran forward and shoved it back down, leaning on it's chest. Her switchblade flew into it's face, jamming into it's flailing head. It's twitching hands clawed at her weakly as she twisted the blade, watching as dark blood bubbled from the wound. She wrenched it out, heaving a large sigh when she saw it stop moving.

Joel had just killed his infected and looked over to her, bloody and out of breath. He opened his mouth to speak but right then, the infected under her jolted back to life, pushing Ellie off of itself and awkwardly lunging for her. Before she could even hastily raise her knife, Joel swung his pipe and bashed it into it's head with a loud crack, like it was a baseball. The head split open and splattered hot gore over her as the body slumped forward next to her.

"Jesus, Joel!!" She gasped in horror at his raw brutality. The look on his face was terrifying; his eyes were locked in a glare and blood was splattered down his cheek and neck. Ellie certainly felt lucky to be on his side of the fight because she didn't even want to imagine fighting against him.

"Are you alright?" He rasped, extending a dirty hand down to her. She scoffed but shakily accepted it and pulled herself up, ignoring the corpse beside her. Ellie futilely wiped her hands on her pants, which only smeared more blood on them.

Joel's head quickly scoped the room again, making sure it was clear of infected for the time being. He nodded to himself and took a step forward before he hissed and clutched his side.

"What the hell, are you okay?" She made to pull his hand aside but he just jerked out of her reach.

"Leave it! I'm fine."

She glared and frowned at him before continuing. "But what if it's a bite?"

"It's not." He stiffly opened a drawer and shifted through the dust and rotten papers for any usable supplies. Upon finding nothing, he slammed it shut.

"So it's a gunshot? But that's..." Her words trailed off when she realized the last possible time he could have gotten shot: running from the military after leaving Tess behind.

Ellie couldn't help but heave a long sigh as she turned and started scavenging as well. The building seemed to have once been a small office at one point and she felt her heart tighten at the faded pictures of happy families on the desks. She walked past them to a little kitchen area and rummaged through the drawers there.

Luckily, she found a dusty first aid kit, complete with some gauze strips and disinfectant. She mentally cheered at her score and walked back over to Joel.

She found him standing still, fists resting on a table, where he was just staring at the wall. Hesitantly, she touched his shoulder and she wasn't surprised when he jerked around to see her. Ellie held up the items she found and pushed them at him.

"C'mon, Joel. You gotta take care of yourself." Her voice was soft and quiet in the silent room.

For a moment, he just stared at her. Then he took a deep breath and finally accepted the supplies.

"Alright, thanks. And uh, let's see...." He set his backpack on the table and pulled out a rag and a bottle of water. He wet the cloth and lightly swiped it down one side of her face. It came back bloody. "Why don't you wash up a bit?"

She smiled, graciously took the rag and started to scrub her face clean. As she washed up, he unbuttoned his shirt and tended to his wound, hissing as he touched where the bullet grazed his side.

Ellie averted her eyes from the numerous old scars littering his torso and instead wiped the cloth down her neck, then over her hands. When Joel was done patching himself up, he tiredly rubbed at his eyes and sighed.

"Well," She broke the silence. "How much longer 'till we get to this guy with a car?"

"Maybe another hour or so. We're not so far off."

She nodded. "Okay, cool. I'm ready when you are, I guess."

Joel wordlessly picked back up his revolver and pipe and they continued forward.

 

**Author's Note:**

> This was just a random exercise I started to just write for the sake of writing. I'm working on so many different fics, I wanted to do a fight scene because I actually really enjoy writing them. I guess it's a bit of a writer's block kind of thing, to just do something for fun; I didn't even really have a particular direction this was going in, other than showing just a small moment between Joel and Ellie that wasn't in the game.
> 
> So yeah! This was fun. I may do more exercises like this in the future, even!


End file.
